Chapter 10 - The Footage From the Curb
City General Hospital had six cameras covering the drop-off area.
The footage showed everything.
Hailey standing beside the SUV with Toby secured against her chest.
Jasper pressing cash into her hand.
Hailey attempting to reach the open door.
Jasper blocking her.
Priscilla pulling the diaper bag away.
Gillian tapping her watch.
Jasper shutting the door.
The SUV leaving.
A second camera captured Hailey nearly collapsing before hospital staff helped her inside.
There was no audio.
None was needed.
The cruelty was visible in every movement.
Naomi requested certified copies.
The maternity nurse also documented Hailey’s condition upon readmission.
Fresh bleeding at the incision.
Elevated blood pressure.
Physical exhaustion.
No food or medication in her possession.
Charles watched the video in silence.
When it ended, he stepped into the hallway.
Hailey knew he was hiding tears.
She looked at Naomi.
“Will this protect Toby?”
“Yes.”
“Will it stop Gillian?”
“It will destroy her petition.”
Hailey shook her head.
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Naomi understood.
Gillian had spent years crossing lines without consequences.
Losing one court petition would not change her.
Hailey needed something stronger.
The investigator searched Gillian’s finances and found regular payments from Jasper’s company into an account labeled family consulting.
Gillian had received nearly two million dollars over five years without performing documented work.
Priscilla had received another eight hundred thousand.
The payments came from funds connected to the fraudulent loan.
They were not merely cruel relatives.
They had financially benefited from the fraud.
Hailey asked to speak with Jasper’s board chair.
Naomi arranged a secure video call.
The board chair, Martin Ellison, appeared pale and exhausted.
“Mrs. Cole, I want you to know the board had no knowledge of the guarantee.”
“I believe you.”
“Jasper told us your family had voluntarily backed the refinancing.”
“He lied.”
Martin looked ashamed.
“He said you were too private to attend meetings.”
“He prevented me from attending.”
Hailey sent him the hospital footage.
Then the security recording of the forged signature.
Martin watched both.
When he looked back at the screen, his expression had changed.
“The board will remove Jasper as CEO pending investigation.”
Hailey felt no triumph.
Only a strange emptiness.
Jasper had built his identity around that title.
Now it would be gone.
But Naomi cautioned her.
“Removal is temporary until the vote.”
“When is the vote?”
“Tomorrow at nine.”
The same time the refinancing had been scheduled to close.
Jasper still held several board proxies.
Gillian controlled two through family trusts.
He could survive if he convinced enough directors that Hailey was acting vindictively.
Then Hailey remembered something.
During her pregnancy, Jasper often held private board dinners at their house.
Gillian insisted on recording them through the security system for “liability.”
If those recordings remained, they might show Jasper discussing the fraudulent loan.
The recovered archive contained one final deleted file.
A dinner from six months earlier.
Jasper’s voice was clear.
“If Hailey objects, we’ll say pregnancy has made her unstable.”
One director laughed.
Another asked, “And after the baby?”
Gillian answered from off camera.
May you like
“Once she has no access to the accounts, it won’t matter what she says.”
👉 The footage could remove Jasper permanently—but revealing it would expose that members of his board had knowingly helped silence Hailey.
